OBJECTIVE: To analyze the changes in psychological distress and quality of life of patients with advanced liver cancer after transformation therapy. METHODS: This study was conducted among 60 patients with advanced liver cancer undergoing transformation therapy from July, 2019 to March, 2022. Before and after 2-10 cycles of treatment, the patients were assessed for psychological distress and quality of life using a psychological stress thermometer and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Hepatobiliary (FACT-Hep). RESULTS: The patients showed significantly lowered scores for psychological distress after transformation therapy (P < 0.01) with decreased psychological stress, emotional factors, tension, worry, sleep problems, memory decline and inattention, physical factors, pain, fatigue, eating problems and dyspepsia (P < 0.05). The total score of quality of life and the scores for physical status, social and family status, emotional status, functional status and hepatobiliary-specific items were all significantly lowered after the treatment (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION In patients with advanced liver cancer, the psychological distress involves mainly the emotional factors and physical factors. Transformation therapy can significantly relieve psychological distress of the patients and improve their quality of life.
Humans ; Quality of Life/psychology* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Psychological Distress ; Fatigue/psychology* ; Stress, Psychological ; Neoplasms ; Liver Neoplasms

China ; Health Care Costs ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Tertiary Care Centers

Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase is a flavin-dependent mitochondrial enzyme to catalyze the fourth step of the de novo synthesis of pyrimidine and to oxidize dihydroorotate to orotate. By selectively inhibiting dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, thereby inhibiting pyrimidine synthesis, the enzyme has been developed for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases, bacterial or viral infections, parasitic diseases and so on. The development of inhibitory drugs requires a detailed understanding of the structural characteristics and catalytic cycle mechanism of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase. Therefore, this paper reviews these two aspects, and indicates perspectives of these inhibitors in clinical application.
Catalysis ; Mitochondria/metabolism* ; Oxidation-Reduction ; Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-CH Group Donors/metabolism*

To control the risks of powder caking and capsule shell embrittlement of Guizhi Fuling Capsules, a predictive model for hygroscopicity of contents in Guizhi Fuling Capsules was built. A total of 90 batches of samples, including raw materials, intermediate powders and capsules, were collected during the manufacturing of Guizhi Fuling Capsules. According to the production sequence, 47 batches were used as the calibration set, and the properties of raw materials and the four intermediate powders were comprehensively characterized by the physical fingerprint. Then, the partial least squares(PLS) model was developed with the content hygroscopicity as the response variable. The variable importance in projection(VIP), variance inflation factor(VIF) and regression coefficients were used to screen out potential critical material attributes(pCMAs). As a result, five pCMAs from 54 physical parameters were screened out. Furthermore, different models were built by different combinations of pCMAs, and their predictive robustness of 43 batches was evaluated on the basis of the validation set. Finally, the tap density(D_c) of wet granules obtained from wet granulation and the angle of repose(α) of raw materials were identified as the critical material attributes(CMAs) affecting the hygroscopicity of the contents of Guizhi Fuling Capsules. The prediction model established with the two CMAs as independent variables had an average relative prediction error of 2.68% for samples in the validation set, indicating a good accuracy of prediction. This paper proved the feasibility of predictive modeling toward the control of critical quality attributes of Chinese medicine oral solid dosage(OSD). The combination of the continuous quality improvement, the industrial big data and the process modeling technique paved the way for the intelligent manufacturing of Chinese medicine oral solid preparations.
Capsules ; Drug Compounding ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/chemistry* ; Powders ; Wettability

In this paper, five representative Chinese herbal decoction pieces of Scutellariae Radix, Paeoniae Radix Alba, vinegar-processed Corydalis Rhizoma, Polygoni Multiflori Radix Praeparata and Lonicerae Japonicae Flos were selected to prepare the corresponding fine powder of pieces, extract powder, semi-extract powder and physical mixed powder. The physical properties of 20 kinds of powders, such as related parameters of particle size, density, stability and flowability, were evaluated comprehensively. The compression curves of powder porosity and tensile strength changing with pressure were plotted, and the Heckel equation and the Kawakita equation were used to describe the powder compression behavior. The results showed that compared with the fine powder of pieces, the compressibility of the semi-extract powder and the extract powder was significantly improved. Compared with the extract powder, the particle size and relative uniformity of the semi-extract powder were increased, indicating that the uniformity of the powder was improved. Besides, the semi-extract powder could reduce the hygroscopicity of the powder. Particularly, the semi-extract powder of Scutellariae Radix, Paeoniae Radix Alba and vinegar-processed Corydalis Rhizoma could maintain the porous structure of the tablet even under a high tableting pressure, which was beneficial to tablet disintegration. For some traditional Chinese medicines(such as Lonicerae Japonicae Flos), the semi-extract powder could reduce the viscosity, which avoided the sticking in the die compression. The semi-extract powder and the physical mixture powder prepared by the same Chinese herbal decoction pieces had similar physical properties and compression behaviors. Principal component analysis(PCA) was carried out on the 17 physical attributes and 5 compression parameters of the powder. It was found that the first principal component mainly reflected the differences among the material sources, while the second principal component could reflect the differences among fine powder of pieces, extract powder, semi-extract powder and physical mixed powder originating from the same Chinese herbal decoction pieces. In this paper, the mechanism of "unification of drugs and excipients" of Chinese medicine semi-extract powder was explained in terms of physical properties and compression behavior of powders, which provided reference for the formulation design and process development of Chinese medicine tablets.
Drug Compounding ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Excipients ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Plant Extracts ; Powders ; Tablets ; Technology, Pharmaceutical

Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of mumps in Hefei City from 2011 to 2016, in order to provide a basis for effective prevention of mumps. Methods The data of mumps in Hefei City from 2011 to 2016 was analyzed by descriptive epidemiology. Results There were a total of 9 678 cases of mumps in Hefei City from 2011 to 2016. The average annual incidence was 22.7/100 000, with the highest in 2013 being 40.56/100 000. Mumps had obvious seasonality with high incidence in spring. Mumps cases increased in winter but the peak was not distinct. The group with the largest number of cases was mainly students, accounting for 64.5% of the total number of cases, followed by childcare and residentially-scattered children. The average annual morbidity of nine counties existed differences( 2=256.845，P<0.001). Conclusions There was a high incidence of mumps in Hefei City from 2011 to 2016. More effective measures should be taken to prevent the incidence of mumps and reduce the spread of mumps virus.

This paper describes a bioassay method for the determination of ansamitocin titers. A fungal strain sensitive to ansamitocin was classified to the genus Trichoderma based on phylogenetic analysis of its ITS sequence, and designated as Trichoderma CPCC 400749. PDA plates of Trichoderma CPCC 400749 were prepared to assay ansamitocin titers of Actinosynnema pretiosum ATCC 31565. The titers were consistent with those determined by HPLC. The bioassay method may have the potential use in high-throughput screening for Actinosynnema pretiosum mutants with improved ansamitocin titers.

OBJECTIVE: Salmonella enterica remains a major cause of food-borne disease in humans, and Salmonella Typhimurium (ST) contamination of poultry products is a worldwide problem. Since macrophages play an essential role in controlling Salmonella infection, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of glycyrrhizic acid (GA) on immune function of chicken HD11 macrophages. METHODS: Chicken HD11 macrophages were treated with GA (0, 12.5, 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, or 800 μg/ml) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 500 ng/ml) for 3, 6, 12, 24, or 48 h. Evaluated responses included phagocytosis, bacteria-killing, gene expression of cell surface molecules (cluster of differentiation 40 (CD40), CD80, CD83, and CD197) and antimicrobial effectors (inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), NADPH oxidase-1 (NOX-1), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), LPS-induced tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α factor (LITAF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-10), and production of nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). RESULTS: GA increased the internalization of both fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran and ST by HD11 cells and markedly decreased the intracellular survival of ST. We found that the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of cell surface molecules (CD40, CD80, CD83, and CD197) and cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-6, and IL-10) of HD11 cells was up-regulated following GA exposure. The expression of iNOS and NOX-1 was induced by GA and thereby the productions of NO and H₂O₂ in HD11 cells were enhanced. Notably, it was verified that nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathways were responsible for GA-induced synthesis of NO and IFN-γ gene expression. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, these results suggested that GA exhibits a potent immune regulatory effect to activate chicken macrophages and enhances Salmonella-killing capacity.
Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Chickens ; Glycyrrhizic Acid/pharmacology* ; Macrophage Activation/drug effects* ; NF-kappa B/physiology* ; Phagocytosis/drug effects* ; Salmonella/drug effects* ; Signal Transduction/drug effects*

Chuangxinmycin (CM) from Actinoplanes tsinanensis was an antibiotic discovered by Chinese scientists about 40 years ago. It contains a new heterocyclic system of indole fused with dihydrothiopyran, whose biosynthetic mechanism remains unclear. CM is used as an oral medicine in the treatment of bacterial infections in China. The simple structure makes CM as an attractive candidate of structure modification for improvement of antibacterial activity. Recently, we analyzed the secondary metabolites of Actinoplanes tsinanensis CPCC 200056, a CM producing strain, as a natural CM analogue. We discovered the first natural CM analogue 3-demethylchuangxinmycin (DCM) as a new natural product. Compared to CM, DCM exhibited a much weaker activity in the inhibition of the bacterial strains tested. The finding provides valuable information for the structure-activity relationship in the biosynthesis of CM.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; China ; Indoles ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Micromonosporaceae ; chemistry ; Structure-Activity Relationship

Chuangxinmycin (CM) from Actinoplanes tsinanensis was an antibiotic discovered by Chinese scientists about 40 years ago. It contains a new heterocyclic system of indole fused with dihydrothiopyran, whose biosynthetic mechanism remains unclear. CM is used as an oral medicine in the treatment of bacterial infections in China. The simple structure makes CM as an attractive candidate of structure modification for improvement of antibacterial activity. Recently, we analyzed the secondary metabolites of Actinoplanes tsinanensis CPCC 200056, a CM producing strain, as a natural CM analogue. We discovered the first natural CM analogue 3-demethylchuangxinmycin (DCM) as a new natural product. Compared to CM, DCM exhibited a much weaker activity in the inhibition of the bacterial strains tested. The finding provides valuable information for the structure-activity relationship in the biosynthesis of CM.